Trusting Your Boxer

[bjhallwblily]

Well Lily is a few weeks away from one year and I'm starting to wonder about trusting her more. I tried this when she was a little younger and it failed time after time.

Right now we leave her in a cage when no one is home and it works fine. Even when someone is here and she gets tired, she will still go in her cage and just lay down. Well eventually I would like to get to the point where I can leave her loose while no one is here.

Are there any good steps to doing this? Maybe like keeping her in one room at a time and slowly opening her up to the whole house? When I tried this before I would just lock her in my bed room. However when I would come home it usually looked like a tornado had come through, so I gave that one up.

So I was just wondering what steps and around what ages everyone started leaving your boxers out.

 

[Murp.mm]

A tired boxer is a good boxer so I would give her a good run or walk and then try leaving her out for awhile. Ms. Ali was not crated and I always left her but for short periods at first and I always tried to leave after she had her run or walk and I'm retired which helps BIG TIME. She had our mini poodle to keep her company as well which I think helped but nevertherless there are still times today at age 4 when she will take a sneaker or something belonging to me to bed but doesn't chew it anymore but she will chew paper or my glasses if she's bored. There is something about paper and glasses that she still likes - I say she's just trying to read the paper but she get bored with all the nonsense and decides it's just not worth reading. The only way to find out is to try it for short periods and like I said when they are tired is a really good time to give it a try. I think crating is great just the same especially if they are really rambunctious around guests you can put them in their crate to calm down. I'd wished a number of times that I had trained Ms. Ali to stay in a crate. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

[Shane72]

This was my experience with what you're doing:

Rocky was about a year and a half old before I could totally trust him out of his crate at all times. When I first started leaving him out, I would leave him out for short periods like when I would run to the store or something. Then I started leaving him out for random half days - I always go home for lunch. Once we built up to full days, I was convinced he would be fine. He would do great for two days but on the third he would get destructive. This was when he went through his really destructive phase (luckily not too bad). I ended up leaving him out for two days and then crate him a half day or a day and just cycle like that. After a few weeks I just left him out to see how long it could last and he did fine from that point on.

So my advice would be to take it slow and let her get used to a little freedom at a time. Expect that she may get bored so make sure she's getting plenty of exercise and stimulation but also try to limit the things she can get into. Put a few of her favorite toys, kongs, etc. the the area where she'll be. You can try hiding treats and toys to keep her busy. Be willing to accept that she may do some destructive things, hopefully this won't happen or will be minimal but since no-one's there to prevent it or tell her "no", it may happen. I don't know if it's possible to train her how to act when she's alone.

I think at a year old, she may be a little young but I guess it will depend a lot on her personality, energy level and training - does she usually leave your stuff alone?

I'm certainly no expert so hopefully you'll get some better advice than I can give but I just wanted to share my experience. Hope it helps and good luck!

 

[Shane72]

Sorry, just noticed I basically repeated a lot of what Murp.mm said. Guess I need to read a little better before I post! I'm with Murp.mm with the paper thing too! Rocky destroyed a couple of hard cover novels when he went through his phase but it was my fault of course. If I accidentally leave the newspaper or mail on the table I may get home to a confetti party! I don't know what it is about paper products either



Good luck!

 

[bjhallwblily]

Shes really good when i'm here, but one example is: We were leaving the door open at night and giving her free roam of the house. Well after a week or so we notices a baseboard started looking a little rough on a corner. Well we let it go on for a day and then it got worse so now we have to shut the bedroom door and shes fine all night.

So shes usually fine when we're around, but she seams to get bored pretty easily. She has plenty of toys, but i guess she wants to find new stuff to get into. It'll probably be a good idea to wait another 6 months or so just to give her a little time to get out of her chewing on things spells.

 

[Box Boys]

It might just depend on the dog. Buster has been left in the house (not crated or confined to the kitchen) for the past couple months I think. When he kept figuring out how to get out of the kitchen I tried leaving him in the house when we're at work/school. He has been good as gold. I do shut the boys' bedroom doors (and mine) and the laundry room doors and bathroom doors...but he has access to the rest of the house (great room, kitchen, dining room and up the stairs). Now...for us, it's worked great as Buster really loves to get comfy on the sofa or chair but it's possible he hasn't hit his terrible teenage years where he'll start destroying things. Now, on occasion he has pulled the foyer rug into the great room, or knocked a few papers off the table. I continue to watch him. Buster has a crate and I used it when he was younger and it's still up in the kitchen...though I'm not sure he uses it much anymore. He sleeps in bed with me and really enjoys being there vs. his crate at night. I think with any dog, progress slowly, if you see things not working, back it off. For instance, I recently started leaving my bedroom door open (it's a first floor master), and we started having problems with Buster excitedly peeing when my oldest son got home (and he was watching him from the front window), so I closed off my door again, and the excited peeing has subsided. Give them what they are ready for.

 

[Shane72]

Shes really good when i'm here, but one example is: We were leaving the door open at night and giving her free roam of the house. Well after a week or so we notices a baseboard started looking a little rough on a corner. Well we let it go on for a day and then it got worse so now we have to shut the bedroom door and shes fine all night.

You can try some of the nontoxic bitter apple spray or something similar on the baseboard to see if that will keep her from chewing. Of course that didn't work on Rocky, he actually licked the stuff off everything I ever put it on. Boxers, they can drive you nuts sometimes!

 

[catcrazy56]

My 3 are all left out and trusted when no one is home, Foreman was allowed at 14 months and Cooper at 13 months now Cooper is 17 months old you still have to be careful whats left out 2 weeks ago he got dhs passport and ripped out the main page and chewed the strap from my daughters shoe don't know why but he did hasn't chewed anything for a while but pens and dvd covers have to be put away and now shoes my breeder told me not to untill they were 22 months old